


The Lucky One [Part 1]

by Minty_Pixie



Series: Soulmate AU [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Ahn Heeyeon, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Choi Jinri, Light Angst, M/M, Romance, Zhang yixing - Freeform, kim minseok - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-22 00:38:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14296986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minty_Pixie/pseuds/Minty_Pixie
Summary: Kyungsoo thinks it just has to do with luck. Or rather the lack of it. But maybe, just for this time, he could allow himself to admit he might have been wrong all along.





	The Lucky One [Part 1]

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote that and posted it on AFF back in March 2016... It was about time I start crosspostings all my fics here on AO3 xD...

Kyungsoo still remembers the days he met her. Jinri. His soulmate. He was only 8 years old back then. And she was wearing a cute white dress covered with a bright yellow sunflower pattern. He still can perfectly see the way her long dark hair tied into high ponytails was bouncing every time she would jump, higher and higher, the jumping rope she was holding whistling in rhythm with the calm wind blowing in the park with every swing of her wrists.  
He still can feel the little tingle buzzing in his wrist, still can picture the blinking numbers on his countdown clock coming to a stop.

**  
00d00h00m00s**

  
He still can hear her jumping rope falling to the ground and her little gasp.

That’s when he knew. When he looked up, only to see her big eyes staring back at him, her mouth opened forming a little O, he just knew. Even if he was too young to understand when his mother had tried numerous times to explain to him how it would feel like when he would meet his soulmate. Even if he was not old enough to figure out what it could mean to spend the rest of his life with the person he was destined to. He can still remember that sudden feeling of belonging to someone slowly invading his chest and making his heartbeat slightly speed up.

 

 

 

 

 

He still dreams of her, sometimes. Mostly memories of her. Of them, together. Walking down the hallways of their middle school, hands linked tightly. Eating ice cream under the warm sun rays in her backyard, their shoulders touching. Doing homework, laying on his bedroom’s carpet floor, surrounded by notebooks and empty cookies boxes. Laughing hysterically, watching variety shows reruns, sprawled on the living room couch, their thighs brushing. He dreams of her smile, of her voice humming random melodies, of her eyes sparkling when he complimented her. He dreams of the softness of her hair when he brushed his hand through the long strands. He dreams of the warmth of her lips when he kissed them for the first time.

He dreams of her, sometimes. And when he wakes up those mornings, he still has to inhale slowly. Because he still feel the loss of not having her by his side anymore.

Kyungsoo knows that feeling has nothing to do with the whole soulmate thing. He knows it’s just him, refusing to let go, no matter how much he wants to.

He accepted it. But he still wonders why she decided to choose someone else over him.

 

 

 

If you asked him, Kyungsoo would tell you that life is a strange thing. To give someone only one soulmate, when others have the choice between several ones, or don’t have a choice at all, for their countdown clock stays blank forever.

It’s something scientists are still struggling to explain. And even the most qualified brains still can’t get a grasp on what is happening inside our bodies. Some hypotheses were thrown here and there. No real explanation though.

Kyungsoo thinks it just has to do with luck. Or rather the lack of it, as far as he is concerned.

He knows his mother’s first soulmate died when they were just teenagers. And after years of mourning, she finally let herself convinced into reinitializing her countdown clock.  
She was part of the lucky ones, and life granted her with another soulmate. Kyungsoo’s father.

 

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo still remembers it. The day he stopped feeling the pull towards Jinri. The day she and Yixing got legally matched. He still remembers how the clock on his wrist went blank the minute theirs got surgically removed.

**  
\--d--h--m--s**

  
And that’s why he knows the loss he feels is not caused by this. He just misses her. He misses them together. He misses the feeling of belonging to someone, knowing that person was his too. He misses knowing he would never be alone, no matter what life would put on his way. He misses the inevitability of all this. He misses the feeling of safety.

 

 

 

 

 

“ _I’m serious, Kyungsoo-yah. You should get it reinitialized. Think about it. What if you_ ** _do_** _have another soulmate ?_ ”

“ _Yeah, can you imagine how lost they might feel, looking at their blank countdown clock ?_ ”

Kyungsoo knows. He knows he should listen to his friends. Everybody has been telling him the same things for the past three years. And here, sitting in a little cozy café downtown, looking at Minseok and Heeyeon’s intertwined hands, he knows he should listen to them.  
But what if they’re wrong ? What if he does get his clock rebooted and it still stays blank ? He’s not sure to be ready for that. He’s scared of hoping, only to get crushed by a clock void of any number.

But he eventually gives up and takes an appointment at the hospital.

 

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo knew. Deep down, he knew. He has never been on the lucky side. The only lucky thing he can recall having is Jinri. And it turned out he was wrong the day she met him in the park where he saw her for the first time. When she linked her hands with the man standing beside her, and told Kyungsoo that she was sorry. That she wasn’t expecting to see her clock starting to randomly blink while she was on his way to meet him for their usual Friday night date. That she loved him dearly and always will, but that she just couldn’t deny the pull she felt towards Yixing. It didn’t matter that she and the boy had only met a week prior. What she felt for him was already stronger than what she had ever felt for Kyungsoo.  
He just nodded. What else could he have done.  
He still remembers watching them leave. He still can feel his world crumbling down while the crickets were singing in the warm summer air.

And because he knew, Kyungsoo also knows he shouldn’t be surprised to not see any blinking numbers on his clock when he comes home after his reinitializing appointment.  
But it doesn’t stop the pain.

At least, he thinks, the sound of his heart breaking is loud enough to keep him from hearing his own agonizing sobs as he curls up on his bed.

 

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo starts wearing a large bracelet made out of leather on his wrist. Its caramel color contrasts well with the gold swirling details. He likes it. He thinks it’s pretty, in a manly way. And the fact that it hides the blank clock inlaid in his skin makes the bracelet even prettier. He no longer has to see what lays unmoving under the leather piece. And it keeps people from glancing at it too.

He still goes to work, still sees his friends, still visits his parents and calls his brother. He still smiles and calmly chats with Jinri and Yixing when he happens to randomly meet them in the busy streets downtown. He still tells everyone he is okay. He is not. But he still pretends.

Then it becomes a habit. He carves it in his mind, slowly, meticulously, day after day. Until he has convinced himself. Until he learns to stop hoping for something that will never come. It takes almost an entire year, but he has his whole life to get used to it.

  
In the process, he stops dreaming of Jinri. His dreams are sometimes filled with a faceless tall silhouette standing with a bright sun in backlight. He doesn’t think about it, for he can barely remember it when he wakes up.

It’s no longer Jinri. And that in itself can be considered as a progress.

  
He also starts making lists. Lists of places he wants to visit, of things he wants to do, someday.  
Lists are a good way to keep his mind focused on something. He tries to keep what he writes down at a realistic level. He doesn’t write that he wants to visit Europe. Instead, he writes “go to the new café next to the bookstore”.  
The latest addition to his list is “adopt a cat”. Just because talking to a cat seems more entertaining than talking to his potted plant.  
Even if he bought said plant after writing it on a list a few months ago.

And cats are cuter than plants anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo is on his way to the pet shelter after his work shift when it happens.

The sun is slowly descending in the horizon, almost disappearing behind the buildings standing in the distance. Summer is just around the corner, but the air is still cool enough to not suffocate the streets.  
It’s just another normal day. Nothing out of the ordinary. It’s been a while now since something unusual happened to him. And his mind is filled with trivial thoughts. He hopes the little grey cat he saw the other day at the shelter will still be here. The cutie is missing an ear. He thinks he could name it Van Gogh.

Then, a violent pang in his heart makes it suddenly miss a beat, taking his breath away and forces him to stop walking and bend forward, all thoughts about his future cat forgotten. He presses his palm against his chest, inhaling big gulps of air, trying to subdue the sharp pain tightening its vicious fingers around his erratingly pulsating heart. But nothing seems to work, and panic starts to engulf his mind, blurring his wild opened eyes.

He wants to ask for help, but the people walking around him in the lazy ending afternoon seem to brush past him, uncaring of his state.

The pain in his chest keeps growing, heartbeats uneven and lungs rejecting the air he tries to force in. He is afraid to pass out, here, in the middle of the big avenue’s sidewalk. But the second his vision starts to go black, a spiky string of electricity runs through his right wrist and stops him from fainting.

He whimpers weakly, his heart still speeding up its pace every second, but forces himself to shakingly remove the bracelet covering his wrist. After a few seconds of struggling, the leather piece is gone.

He thinks he vaguely hears it falling on the concrete, but he’s not sure.

All he can register is the countdown clock on his wrist. And the numbers blinking ferociously as they go down, down, down.

**  
00d00h00m06s**

**  
00d00h00m05s**

**  
00d00h00m04s**

  
Kyungsoo doesn’t understand. His mind can’t figure out what is happening. His heartbeat is still increasing, and he feels like he is about to get sick.

**  
00d00h00m03s**

**  
00d00h00m02s**

  
He still can’t get a grasp on the situation and he confusedly wonders if he is going to die when the countdown will stop.

**  
00d00h00m01s**

  
He just wanted to adopt a cat.

**  
00d00h00m00s**

  
Then, as quickly as it started, the pain is gone.

Kyungsoo closes his eyes when he feels the cool air invading his oxygen deprived lungs. It makes him slightly dizzy.

Or so he thinks.

But then, he notices something else. A different feeling. Crawling quietly in his veins, from his fingertips and right towards his surprisingly steady heart. He feels it blossoming and radiating warm waves of peacefulness through every fiber of his body.

Slowly, Kyungsoo opens his eyes. Only to squint them almost shut again the next second, sunrays hurting his sensitive retinas.

The first thing he sees is broad shoulders cladded in a denim jacket. The silhouette standing in front of him is taller than him and he has to tilt his chin up to look at the person’s face, letting his eyes adjust to the sunset light creating a bright halo around soft-looking hazel strands of hair. It takes a few seconds for his vision to get used to it, but then, he finally can look at the stranger with his eyes wild open. He takes his time to embrace the soft features of the young man’s face, his almond shaped eyes intensely staring back, his round nose, his plump lips stretched into a small smile indenting a little dimple on his tanned cheek.

Kyungsoo watches silently as the handsome stranger opens his mouth.

“ _It’s you, isn’t it ?_ ”

The low voice sends a shiver along his spine and he exhales slowly, blinking a few times. He is not entirely sure what to say, still captured in the man’s burning gaze. So he just nods.  
This is probably the answer the boy was waiting for, because then, Kyungsoo gets suddenly fascinated when the stranger’s lips reveal bright white teeth as he happily beams at him.

“ _I’m Jongin._ ”

Once again, Kyungsoo is left speechless, blinking as the rest of his body stays still, chest calmly heaving up and down. The boy – _Jongin_ – is still smiling at him, patiently waiting for Kyungsoo to say something, anything. Their eyes are locked and Kyungsoo vaguely thinks that, with any other person – including Jinri – the same action had always felt awkward.

Jongin tilts his head slightly on the side, silently encouraging Kyungsoo. And finally, after inhaling slowly, he manages to answer.

“ _Kyungsoo…_ ”

The smile illuminating Jongin’s face is literally breathtaking. And suddenly, Kyungsoo finds himself pressed against a firm chest, two warm arms surrounding his shoulders, engulfing him in a tight embrace.

The collar of Jongin’s denim jacket is poking the corner of his eye, but Kyungsoo doesn’t even care. All he can feel is the pure peacefulness enfolding him as he comfortably buries his nose in his soulmate’s collarbone. Here, he can feel the vibrations in Jongin’s throat when the young man speaks again.

“ _It’s been a very, very long year, waiting for you._ ”

The skin on Kyungsoo's neck tingles when he feels the warm breath of those words brushing it and he can’t help but smile against Jongin’s shoulder and slide his own arms around the boy’s waist.

 

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo always thought it just had to do with luck. Or rather the lack of it, as far as he was concerned. But maybe, just maybe, now, he could allow himself to admit he might have been wrong all along.

Because at this moment, pressed against Jongin protective body, he understands what Jinri said, that day in the park. What he feels now for the boy in his arms is stronger than what he has ever felt for her, for anyone.  
He doesn’t know how. He just feels like this is where he belonged all along. As if his body, his _soul_ , knew that Jongin would be coming to complete him.

So eventually, just for this time, surrounded by Jongin’s silent yet unconditional love, he can accept the fact that maybe, just maybe, he’s the lucky one.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Ta-da ? Or maybe not xD...  
> What do you guys think ?
> 
> Part 2 will be Jongin PoV !


End file.
